I first got OW certified when I was in high school, in 1984. I had always wanted to do it, and I convinced my parents to help. Well, as much as I loved it, nothing ever came of it. Lack of money, lack of time, etc... we've all heard the story. Fast forward to 2006 and my work/life balance needed some adjusting, I had tons of vacation saved up, so I went and got recertified and it's been a huge part of my life since then. I regret losing those years of experience, but better late than never.
In the 22 year gap, I forgot a lot of the details about my initial certification. I lost the card ages ago and many of the details are hazy. Here's what I've been able to piece together. The LDS was called: The Scuba Shoppe and it was located on E. Gude Drive in Rockville, Maryland (US). Through internet research, I'm pretty sure the owner was Bob Landers and the affiliation was NAUI (but I'm not sure about that). I think the OW checkout dives were done in Pennsylvania at Willow Springs Park? That's about it. I contacted NAUI with as many details as I could dig up, and they couldn't find anything in their records.
Just to make myself sound old - now that I'm a DM - I do remember how much harder the OW course was back then. We did things in the OW course that I didn't have to do for my DM (like complete ditch/don in 20ft of water). We did rescue exercises in OW that we don't even teach in rescue anymore... Ah...the old days...
I wonder if anyone else has any recollections of this shop? If so, I'd love to hear them, or to fill in some details.
I did actually keep the book and workbook we used:
Thanks for the stroll down memory lane.
In the 22 year gap, I forgot a lot of the details about my initial certification. I lost the card ages ago and many of the details are hazy. Here's what I've been able to piece together. The LDS was called: The Scuba Shoppe and it was located on E. Gude Drive in Rockville, Maryland (US). Through internet research, I'm pretty sure the owner was Bob Landers and the affiliation was NAUI (but I'm not sure about that). I think the OW checkout dives were done in Pennsylvania at Willow Springs Park? That's about it. I contacted NAUI with as many details as I could dig up, and they couldn't find anything in their records.
Just to make myself sound old - now that I'm a DM - I do remember how much harder the OW course was back then. We did things in the OW course that I didn't have to do for my DM (like complete ditch/don in 20ft of water). We did rescue exercises in OW that we don't even teach in rescue anymore... Ah...the old days...
I wonder if anyone else has any recollections of this shop? If so, I'd love to hear them, or to fill in some details.
I did actually keep the book and workbook we used:
Thanks for the stroll down memory lane.
